Watts Watch: Ira Glickstein, liar or scare-crow?

I told you so! Writing at Watts Up With That, Ira Glickstein — excuse me, Doctor Glickstein as he conspicuously attached a Ph. D. to his user name — eagerly sleds right down the slippery slope I mentioned yesterday to conflate snow with evidence against global warming.

Inches of “Global Warming” Get Dumped on NASA/GISS HQ
If the forecasts hold up, New York City, home to NASA-Goddard Institute of Space Studies, will get up to a few inches of snow, unprecedented for October. Yes, I know “weather isn’t climate”, but every time there is a heat wave anywhere in the world, that weather event is put forth as “proof” of Global Warming …

Maybe the good doctor is joking around, just having a bit of fun, in which case I hope he reads my punchline below and smiles.

The global temperature record is what’s put forth as evidence of global warming. Heat waves could have a measurable effect on the global average, if they’re big enough and last long enough, the same is true for record cold spells. But here’s the thing, the temperature data making up the global average is not collected by rain or snow gauges, its collected — and this really should be obvious, Doctor — by thermometers.

Speaking of global temperature data it seems like only a few days ago Anthony Watts himself decreed that global warming skeptics don’t deny the warming trend. Oh wait …”The Earth is warmer than it was 100-150 years ago. But that was never in contention – it is a straw man argument.” — Anthony Watts 21 Oct 2011 … That was just a few days ago!

There are only two options here, I mean outside of the terribly remote possibility that one or both of these clowns is lying: either Doctor Glickstein didn’t mean to discredit global warming or the nation’s premier climate science organization with that headline and scare quotes, or he’s a magic talking scarecrow full of straw.

Warmer water also tends to lead to more evaporation, which in turn leads to more precipitation – and until global temperatures rise quite a bit more than they have already, that includes more snow.

I become a cynic. Climate change leads to the weakening of the gulf stream, which leads to colder winters hereabouts. I’d advocate for even more global warning to compensate, but I fear the summers will get much warmer, leading to crop failure. And we might lose New Orleans, the Netherlands and a few Pacific island nations in the process.